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Thursday, July 17, 2014

And I imagine she’s right as the sun wakes up behind me, casting shadows all over my corner of the world.

I sip my morning cup of joe and I entertain the shadows that splay long and lean into the room. They grow smaller as the sun rises ever higher, the light pushing back the darkness.

I turn pages in my journal, running my fingers over the ripples in the marked paper and the word brave is found on nearly every page. I trace all the words. Brave is scrawled out next to fear and on top of doubt. Brave is written in red in the margins next to callings and tasks and invitations to go deeper.

I smile as I flip the pages of two years worth of living, and I push back the shadows as they become thin slivers around my feet.

I’ve been living the word BRAVE for the last seven months. And when I say living it, I mean Jesus has taken my word of the year and raised it to places I never anticipated going. I’ve spent months beating back all sorts of shadows as I’ve pressed on to the good things He has invited me to.

And here are the things I’ve learned when it comes to BRAVE living. These are listed in no particular order and my prayer is that you make BRAVE your word of the year in 2015. You won’t regret it!

1.) Lead yourself well. Examine your heart and your soul. Seek out a mentor to hold you accountable to your life in Christ, to your family, and to yourself. Be self-disciplined. Be a lifelong learner. Understand that life is a marathon and that soul care is necessary to finish the race well.

2.) Show up to your life. Look people in the eye. Reach across the street or across the table and touch someone’s arm. Ask hard questions. And then listen with your whole body.

3.) Do what you love to do, but belong to Jesus. The whole world is an altar and you’ve been gifted with things this world needs you to give away. So find out what you love to do, go do it, and belong to Jesus. Amen.

4.) Have a vision for what God is doing in your soul. Your worth is not found in what you do. It is found in Christ alone and He cares more about your soul than anything you can do. It takes tremendous bravery to stop the crazy and zero in on the one part of you that only Jesus sees.

5.) Fall on grace. Try things and love people. You will stink things up on occasion. And grace will catch you-every single time. Don’t waste your life waiting on a pure heart. You aren’t ever going to have a perfectly pure heart this side of heaven.

6.) Get still and quiet. Withdraw to a lonely place and sit with yourself. Become acquainted with who you are when still and quiet. And invite Jesus to find you there.

7.) Speak honestly about what you need and then let people in. Talk to your people and tell the truth about your hang-ups, your hurts, your deepest needs. And then let them in to the nitty grity parts of your life.

8.) Say no to the good things so you can say YES to the best things.9.) Embrace your humanity. Let yourself wear skin! Be tired. Be hungry. Be sad. Be giddy. Be compassionate with yourself. When you show yourself compassion, you give others permission to do likewise.

10.) Don’t mind your own business. Know others. Tell them who they are. And then let Jesus love them through you.

Now, be you, bravely.

Lori Harris is a Southern-born girl rearing six children in a neighbourhood some would call the ‘hood.

She and her husband, Thad, have planted a church on the wrong side of the tracks where poverty and racism run deep.

She coordinates a city-wide MOPS group, passes out PBJs to the neighborhood kids, and writes at loriharris.me.

I am honoured to host these guest posts in this series on women mentoring women.

Some weeks you may find tips from the kitchen or healthy recipes, tools other women have used to grow spiritually, hints to help us build up and love our husbands, and lessons they have learned as they have walked along with their children to teach them to love God wholeheartedly, habits they have developed in keeping their home, ways they have worked on to keep their behaviour respectful, or rhythms that allow peace and rest in the home and hearts that dwell there within.

Lori, "Don't waist your life waiting on a pure heart." - yeah, preach that sister. (So this was your second guest post this week you mentioned...) - awesome. And again, the daily work for Him - you are bringing Him joy!